![\"Pittsburgh](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768289776_87_image.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nPITTSBURGH \u2014 Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers found themselves in a familiar spot.<\/p>\n
Monday night’s wild-card playoff game against Houston was close through three quarters, but Sheldon Rankins\u2019 33-yard fumble return for a touchdown allowed the Texans and their top-ranked defense to break it open and beat the Steelers 30-6.<\/p>\n
\u201cCertainly a disappointing end to our season,\u201d Tomlin said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to give Houston a lot of credit, in particular their defensive unit. I thought they ruled the day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tomlin and the Steelers lost their seventh straight playoff game. It\u2019s the longest active postseason losing streak in the league, and Tomlin matched Marvin Lewis of the Bengals for the longest playoff skid by an NFL coach.<\/p>\n
The Steelers haven\u2019t won a playoff game since beating Kansas City in the 2016 divisional round, and whether Tomlin will be back for a 20th season in Pittsburgh is once again an open question \u2014 one that Tomlin declined to address in the aftermath of the loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not in the big-picture perspective,\u201d Tomlin said. \u201cI\u2019m just not in that mindset. I don\u2019t think about the totality of it. You pour everything that you have into these performances and what goes on tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh lost a scheduled Monday night home game for the first time since Oct. 14, 1991, to the New York Giants. The Steelers were unbeaten in their past 23 such games.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) leaves the field after an NFL wild-card playoff football game against the Houston Texans, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026, in Pittsburgh. Credit: AP\/Gene J. Puskar<\/p>\n
Aaron Rodgers threw for 146 yards and the Steelers were limited to 175 yards of total offense. Calen Bullock scored Houston\u2019s second defensive touchdown of the fourth quarter with a 50-yard pick-6 on what may have been the final throw of Rodgers\u2019 21-year career. The four-time MVP plans to take time before deciding whether to return for another season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to make any emotional decisions,\u201d Rodgers said. \u201cI\u2019m disappointed. It was such a fun year. Obviously, a lot of adversity, but a lot of fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Steelers forced Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud into a number of mistakes throughout the first three quarters. Stroud fumbled five times \u2014 he lost two of them \u2014 and threw an interception, but the Steelers couldn’t manage a single touchdown.<\/p>\n
Houston led 10-6 when Will Anderson Jr. sacked Rodgers, and Rankins picked up the ball and returned it to the end zone.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t feel like we ever got the momentum on our side, honestly,\u201d Rodgers said. \u201cWe had a lot of chances. Defense played really good in the first half. (Houston) has a good defense. But we had a lot of opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n
A week earlier, Rodgers threw for a season-high 294 yards and the Steelers rallied in the fourth quarter to defeat the Baltimore Ravens and win their eighth AFC North title under Tomlin.<\/p>\n
On Monday night, the home crowd booed Tomlin and the Steelers off the field, and chants for his firing could be heard in the final minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t really care about that noise because they don\u2019t know what (Tomlin) puts into this,\u201d veteran defensive lineman Cam Heyward said. \u201cThey don\u2019t know how he goes out of his way to prepare every man. They don\u2019t know about the countless nights he is in there studying film. Coaches can only do so much. Players have to play better and in those critical moments, they have to step up.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 Mike Tomlin and the Pittsburgh Steelers found themselves in a familiar spot. Monday night’s wild-card playoff…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":673471,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2055],"tags":[7,253,6,520,57,2360,426,2309],"class_list":{"0":"post-673470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pittsburgh-steelers","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-houston-texans","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-pittsburgh","12":"tag-pittsburgh-steelers","13":"tag-pittsburghsteelers","14":"tag-steelers","15":"tag-wires-bot"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115886646615094638","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=673470"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/673470\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/673471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=673470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=673470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=673470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}